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Deceitfulness - Making excuses
buildontherock
2020-09-07

The term rationalization provides a clue to managing the problem of making excuses. When we provide a reason for making a choice what we want to be able to state is that we have examined all of the options and have chosen the most rational alternative. In order to do that we must be able to list and assign a true weight to each of the options. Therein lies the first problem. Can we identify all of the options and can we assign a true weight (level of importance) to each? It is only after we have done that, that we can honestly state that we have identified the correct choice. After we have identified it then it is a matter of strength of character i.e. cowardice or frugality.

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Rationalization (making excuses)

The coward reckons himself cautious; the miser thinks himself frugal.Henry Home

Cowardice or frugality relates to whether or not we take care of things that fall into the category of things that we can control. If we shy away from things that we can control that is cowardice and if we avoid things that are beyond us that is frugality. Again God makes a difference. We can contrast David with Aaron. David killed a lion and a bear building up to killing Goliath. Aaron claimed that he threw the jewelry in the fire and a golden calf came out.

The Bible is a great help in all the required areas. A sound knowledge of the Bible helps us to see options that we might have missed and helps us to assign a weight. I believe that the weight from the Bible is the best possible because it comes from God and relates to eternity. If we go a step further then a relationship with God opens up options that are only available by the Holy Spirit. Of course a relationship with Satan opens up devilish options but the same Bible helps us to assign a true weight to those.

God sees things differently from men. Reading the Bible gives us His perspective. There is a story told of a prophet in I Kings 13. God gave one of His prophets a duty which he faithfully carried out at the risk of injury and death. On returning from fulfilling his obligations an old prophet heard of him and went after him claiming that an angel had spoken to him to bring the man to dine at his house. Even though God had instructed the younger prophet not to eat in that place the old prophet convinced him otherwise claiming that God had given him fresh instructions. As a result God had the younger prophet mauled by a lion. This brings out the problem with excuses. God did not accept the excuse that an older prophet claiming that God sent him, told the younger prophet to return. If we do not know God's priorities we can make similar mistakes.

Rationalization is so common that it goes way back in literature

This is the excellent foppery of the world, that,when we are sick in fortune, often the surfeit of our own behavior, we make guilty of our disasters the sun, the moon, and the stars: as if we were villains by necessity; fools by heavenly compulsion; knaves, thieves, and treachers, by spherical predominance; drunkards, liars, and adulterers, by an enforced obedience of planetary influence; and all that we are evil in, by a divine thrusting on: an admirable evasion of whoremaster man, to lay his goatish disposition to the charge of a star!William ShakespeareKing Lear, act 1, scene 2, Edmund

Wikipedia gives an eye-opening definition of rationalization

In psychology and logic, rationalization or rationalisation (also known as making excuses)[1] is a defense mechanism in which controversial behaviors or feelings are justified and explained in a seemingly rational or logical manner to avoid the true explanation, and are made consciously tolerable—or even admirable and superior—by plausible means.[2] It is also an informal fallacy of reasoning.[3]

WikipediaRationalization (psychology)Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaWEB18:47, 31 August 2020‎

Rationalization is a defense mechanism. As a result we rationalize to ourselves and we also have an almost irresistible urge to rationalize to other people, even those we do not know. It is usually a response to something that we have done ourselves, such as being unkind to another person but it may also be used to defend something or someone to whom we are attached, such as when a friend is unkind to us. It comes from fear so at the root of rationalization is getting rid of fear in ourselves and in others. If there is no threat there is no need to rationalize.

This brings us down to the fundamentals of rationalism: avoiding or shifting responsibility. That is actually how we are able to identify what is a reason and what is an excuse. An excuse is an attempt to shift blame to someone or something else. A reason is an admission of our culpability and is usually accompanied by a plan to avoid failure in the future. With reason we take responsibility for our behaviors and our decisions that contributed to the failure and establish a plan to control them in the future. God can transform excuses into reasons in several ways. The first is that I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me, Philippians 4:13 [KJV]. That dispenses with excuses and leaves us with asking for wisdom as instructed by James and moving forward in faith.

James 1:5-8 KJV  If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.  6 But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.  7 For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord.  8 A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.

In another webpage under the subhead Use of rationalization to cover up medical errors Wikipedia states:

Based on anecdotal and survey evidence, Banja states that rationalization (making excuses) is very common among the medical profession to cover up medical errors.

WikipediaMedical errorWikipedia, the free encyclopediaWEB13:47, 29 August 2020‎

Common reasons cited for rationalization under these circumstances are:

  • Why disclose the error? The patient was going to die anyway
  • Telling the family about the error will only make them feel worse
  • It was the patient's fault, If he wasn't so (obese, sick etc), this error wouldn't have caused so much harm
  • Well, we did our best. These things happen
  • If we're not totally and absolutely certain the error caused the harm, we don't have to tell.

Other examples in general life include:

  • A person fails to get good enough results to get into a chosen school or institution and then says that they didn't want to go there anyway or from fairy tales the fox and the sour grapes.
  • You accidentally fall over in the street and claim that you have recently been ill.

We may also use it to justify our actions when we know we are wrong. For example:

  • A person submits fake claims on his Income Tax and says to himself, Everyone does it.
  • In a job application a person lies on their resume to get the interview because as they see it nobody can meet such stringent criteria but if I just meet me Ill prove I'm just right for the job.

For such episodes we immediately provide a false explanation that has a logical ring to it like this very old one.


Luke 14:16-24 [KJV]Then said he unto him, A certain man made a great supper, and bade many: 17 And sent his servant at supper time to say to them that were bidden, Come; for all things are now ready. 18 And they all with one consent began to make excuse. The first said unto him, I have bought a piece of ground, and I must needs go and see it: I pray thee have me excused. 19 And another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to prove them: I pray thee have me excused. 20 And another said, I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come. 21 So that servant came, and shewed his lord these things. Then the master of the house being angry said to his servant, Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in hither the poor, and the maimed, and the halt, and the blind. 22 And the servant said, Lord, it is done as thou hast commanded, and yet there is room. 23 And the lord said unto the servant, Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled. 24 For I say unto you, That none of those men which were bidden shall taste of my supper.

According to 'Psychology Wiki', rationalization can be traced back thousands of years to Quintilian and classical rhetoric.

However the concept itself (as opposed to the term) can be traced back millennia earlier, to Quintilian and classical rhetoric: 'The "pat excuse" is the color, a frequent technical term among the rhetoricians for any approach that would present an action in the most favourable possible light'.[6] By the eighteenth century, it was almost a commonplace that, were a man to consider his actions, 'he will soon find, that such of them, as strong inclination and custom have prompted him to commit, are generally dressed out and painted with all the false beauties [color] which, a soft and flattering hand can give them'

Psychology WikiRationalization (defence mechanism)Psychology WikiWEB2020-09-10

So what are we doing when we are challenged to serve God we think:

  • I am already a good person.
  • I am too bad. God is not interested in me.
  • There are too many hypocrites in the church.
  • Church is boring.
  • I need to straighten my life out first.
  • I'll wait until I get a bit older.
  • I don't believe in God or I am not really religious.
  • I was born a Christian.
  • It is the same God in all religions.
  • I can't change.
  • There are too many contradictions in the Bible.
  • I like my life. I want to have fun.
  • I'm too educated or smart to believe the Bible.
  • I believe in science not science fiction.
  • I will not follow a God who burns people in hell.

So as a Christian, when we find ourselves outmatched by the challenge of our circumstances and buckle instead of remembering Hebrews what are we doing?


Hebrews 4:15-16KJV For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. 16 Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.

All this is not to say that an excuse is not appropriate is some situations but it has to do with priorities. When it comes to sin we must always seek repentance but every situation is not as critical as sin. The only real answer is to see God's heart so that we would know the difference.

Worshiping in your tent door

The rationalisation from the incident with Aaron goes even further. Let us begin with at quotation from Exodus.

Exodus 33:10-11 KJV And all the people saw the cloudy pillar stand at the tabernacle door: and all the people rose up and worshipped, every man in his tent door.  11 And the LORD spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend. And he turned again into the camp: but his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, departed not out of the tabernacle.

Notice that it said that the tabernacle door was outside the camp but everybody worshiped in his tent door. The relationship between us and God is not fifty-fifty. We can't say well if He is not coming to me I will not go to Him. The problem is that people do not want to move out of our comfort zone and we let fear petrify us. Golden calves are created when we have a burning issue (burning to us at least) and we cannot see God active in responding to it. We become offended by the situation and seek to solve it the way that we know how instead of the way that God reveals. God has many ways of revealing things but the primary means is instruction in His word. We know that the instruction says do not act in some manner but we do it anyhow.

Exodus 20:2-5 KJV I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.  3 Thou shalt have no other gods before me.  4 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:  5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;

Israel was warned but they did kot know any other way. The ways that they knew had been learned in Egypt which God pictures as sin. We learn our ways from the world of sin that we grew up in and that is all that we know until God reveals His way. They thought that their issues were more important than what God was dealing with, As they saw it He should have responded to their needs. As it turned out He and Moses were arranging a contract to govern the whole nation and that would impact on all of humanity. The Ten Commandments and the Laws and Statutes that Moses and God were discussing were world changing matters that would go down through their posterity, but they could not see Moses. They included the ways to approach Him and get help in times of adversity and if they had waited just a little longer Moses would have returned.

Exodus 32:7-10 KJV And the LORD said unto Moses, Go, get thee down; for thy people, which thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves:  8 They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them: they have made them a molten calf, and have worshipped it, and have sacrificed thereunto, and said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which have brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.  9 And the LORD said unto Moses, I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiffnecked people:  10 Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them: and I will make of thee a great nation.

Remember that when Moses got there He already had the Ten Commandments and so it appears that he was already close to returning. They did not know how close they came to being wiped out completely.

Moses was the instrument of God and they could not see God's instrument active in their lives so they took matters into their own hands just like all the rest of us are prone to do. It never ends well. When we think that we have suffered enough from it there is still the matter of repentance.


Psalms 51:8-13 KJV Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice.  9 Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities.  10 Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.  11 Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me.  12 Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit.  13 Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee.

The whole of that psalm is relevant but that extract is sufficient for now. We cannot get comfortable after we sin until the relationship is fully restored. To do that God has to renew a right heart in us and for that to happen we must go to Him. We have to sacrifice our comfort and humble ourselves. We have to seek Him and beg Him for help. He does not need us, we need Him. That should be obvious but pride can cloud our judgement. Repentance hurts and it may be a long way back. If you examine the consequences of David and Bathsheba you will see that it almost destroyed his family and that was in spite of deep repentance. No Golden Calves for me!